Career thug let into Britain batters and robs 3 women
A THUG beat up two women and a teenage girl in a botched robbery after sneaking into Britain despite having a string of convictions across Europe.
Romanian brute Sandel Hornea, 36, attacked a 14-year-old girl, her aunt and elderly grandmother in their home after posing as an Amazon delivery driver to con his way inside.
Hornea, who had served a nine-year jail term in Italy for sex trafficking, launched the brutal assault after slipping into the UK in 2019 when Britain was still observing freedom of movement rules before Brexit.
In harrowing scenes caught on CCTV – to be screened tomorrow night in a new series of Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody – the career criminal knocked the gran to the floor and dragged her into the kitchen.
The woman lay screaming in agony and suffered a bleed to the brain. Her
granddaughter was then violently punched in the face and dragged screaming across the floor.
Hornea hit her again when she shouted for help and fractured her eye socket. The home owner’s sister went to investigate. Hornea punched her head five times before fleeing with a games console which he mistakenly thought was the CCTV hard drive.
He fled to Romania but the victims – an affluent Chinese family in Luton, Beds – posted the shocking footage online and offered a £20,000 reward.
The offer, plus the discovery of his fingerprints on the phoney Amazon parcel, led to his capture by Romanian police and return to the UK in March.
Bedfordshire police discovered he had numerous convictions in Romania, Hungary and Italy for sex trafficking. Acting Det Insp Tom Hamm said: “How can someone who did a nineyear stretch be allowed to come here?”
Hornea pleaded guilty at Luton Crown Court to wounding, GBH, ABH, robbery, theft and burglary. He will be sentenced in a few weeks.